A Revenant Of Red Death
by SillhouetteSonata
Summary: After being plucked from Hell, Light is reincarnated as a Shinigami under specific instructions. With permission to finish what he began, and stuck with two young high school students to do his bidding, Light begins to plan a way to overthrow the Shinigami King and become what he knows as all-powerful among all while the truly powerful are at work to put things back in place.
1. Prologue

Light's screams echoed throughout a dark void. He couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't feel. His own screams never made a sound as they drifted on in the darkness. The deafening silence in his head, the drowning sensation that he couldn't escape... Where was he? It was so dark. He couldn't move, but he could feel himself spinning much too fast. There was no comfort, no rest from the horrific void. Light couldn't tell if he was falling or if it was just an illusion of the darkness. How long had he been screaming there for help? Where was his salvation?

The darkness began to bend and morph around him. At first, only simple lines and colors that he could both see and not see, but grew together to form shapes and patterns. Colors appeared that were faint but painfully blinding. Then came the voices, familiar but anonymous. Light tried to reach for the shapes and the voices but felt as though his limbs were contradicting him. He screamed again in frustration. The voices were calling to him.

The morphing darkness now was all that he could see, as though it were a sharp lens that had wrapped itself around his eyes, and the shapes began to make out recognizable forms which moved and turned to him, watching silently. The voices whispered and cried behind his head, speaking words that he'd already heard before. The morphing figures resonating before him twisted their bodies into actions that Light had already witnessed. He knew what each precise movement would be the second before it happened. How long had he watched this? Why wouldn't the darkness allow him to remember? His body writhed with painful spasms as the darkened figures danced around his peripheral vision.

'Kira.'

Light's body trembled and he felt his soul knot in dread. He tried to turn toward the voice but the darkness moved with him. The figures were clear in his vision, no matter where he looked or moved. They were sickening him but he couldn't tear away from the sight of them.

' _You_ are Kira,' the voice whispered loudly into his ear.

The few whispering voices around him suddenly became a louder myriad. So many different sounds, crying and screaming. They were all so familiar.

"Light... _Light_!" A sorrowful voice wailed over the others.

It was the first voice that he recognized. It was his mother. Her name flashed in front of his eyes in crimson before the darkness morphed her body in front of him, on her knees screaming and gagging. "My baby boy, my son -" She cried in a shrill voice. "No!"

Other visions began to flash around him: A man with graying hair on his death bed - Light looked down upon him and could remember the feeling of the deceit spewing from his own mouth. The shapes quickly flashed to a woman grieving the loss of her fiancé, misled by her savior to the gallows and slowly becoming evanescent in the falling snow; A boy with platinum hair and cold eyes that reminded Light of another; A black notebook resting idly in the afternoon grass...

'Rester, Giavanni!" The words stung and cracked like a gunshot.

Light watched and turned his head to follow two well-dressed men run across the dank floor of a metal room and seize a madman.

"It's been over a minute," A man spoke, removing his hands from his head with a look of mixed relief and disbelief. "... and we haven't died -"

The vision changed suddenly with the same man yelling in a hoarse voice, "I'll kill him!" The barrel of a gun flashed in Light's eyes as he screamed and tried to dodge the shot which echoed in reverse through his mind. Light was now looking down his own body at a small scrap of blue lined paper in his bleeding hands. "He's got a piece of the notebook!"

"Save me!" Light screamed over the voices. "Somebody, _help!"_ His own voice never reached his ears.

The visions hissed and then reluctantly blurred to the back of his mind as he was unable to keep watching, though he knew they would be back. They were waiting for him to forget again. After everything reset and the torture would begin anew. Never was there a numb moment. Never could he get used to the routine of the same damning memories of how he had led himself to where he was now. He had been so stupid, so careless... It was his fault, all his own. Only in the brief moments like these did he have the capability of understanding that. There were no excuses for him, the ones watching him knew his sins and guile better than he ever would. The void vibrated with his final breath.

"... Mercy..." He cried.

A sharp wind blew past him with such force that it felt as though the gusting air had filled his very being and again, he was spinning. The wind blew into the impenetrable darkness and pushed it back, allowing the faintest of light to reach Light's eyes. The figures behind the darkness retreated back and before Light could begin to realize what was happening, another strong wind and the gushing of feathers enveloped him. With speed that he'd never fathomed before, he ascended.


	2. Chapter One

All was still, all was quiet.

It was finally calm.

Light laid there, for God knows how long, wide-eyed and stupid, simply embracing the subtle serenity and listening motionlessly to the sound of the ever-blowing wind.

He couldn't breathe, though he didn't need air. He couldn't see, though blindness was better than the visions. He couldn't move, yet he wanted to remain petrified. All of his long-held plights and burdens now seemed to have such a stupidly easy solution. Light had finally obtained absolute apathy and he grasped onto it with all of his being.

Not once in a millennia had Light felt so empty, so _liberated_. The torment had finally ceased, Light knew this. Even though the void was still vast before him, he could feel that _they_ were gone. All of them; the legion that had burrowed into his mind and soul, taking what they wanted of him and leaving just enough of themselves so that he couldn't become a useless, unamusing husk.

Maybe that's what he was now, Light realized. Maybe it had all finally collapsed into itself and with their fun gone, they'd left what remained of him to rot and deteriorate in solitude. Hopefully... It's what he had been praying for for so long. He could finally fade in peace.

Light chuckled weakly and felt something hard and uneven against his back as his body shook. It was so ironic that this was how his story ended. He had always imagined himself high above all others in eternal glory and self-satisfaction. He'd never imagined that he'd find himself in such a vexing nightmare and begging to dissolve into inexistence. How ungodly.

But Light had never been one to plan so far into the future. He had had a plan and possibility for all of the immediate outcomes in his life, but he'd never thought of eternity, perhaps because he was afraid to. But now, here he was and what a monumental eternity it was. Light didn't know how long he'd been there, he'd learned not to care. Useless questions only caused more pain and heartache. He had decided that it was best not to know long ago.

Although now, something was different. Something had changed irrevocably. It was cold, very cold unlike anything Light had felt in years. Yet, he didn't shiver or tremble. He laid perfectly still as the coldness blew over him in howling gusts. Light had not yet become fond of the chilling sensation, though he welcomed it wholly as it was very much accepted compared to the infernal blaze that he could still feel scorching his skin. The wind seemed to be mindful of Light's presence and slowed a little to a brisk breeze that caressed him with gentle hands. The sound it made was soft and sweet and Light felt as though it were crying for him.

Then Light wondered if anyone else had cried for him, his mother or Sayu? He hadn't thought of his family in such a way since he'd arrived in the void, as when he would try they would warp his memories into something horrendous. But now, they were gone and he could think freely.

Light had loved his family at one point in time, as he loved most things that were important to him and normal society - school, friendships, even his bratty little sister the day that she appeared in his life. That was what the world had taught him to do, they taught him exactly what it was to love and how to use it. They taught him the things that were acceptable to love and what was taboo. And Light, like all of the other prodigy children never thought anything further of it as everything ran smoothly that way. But eventually, such order becomes boring.

It was the day that that little black notebook fell into his life that everything changed and Light began to understand the real meaning of love. Like a precious stone, locked away in a steel safe twenty feet under the ground, how much is it really worth if it is kept out of sight and danger? How can the owner brag or even claim to own it at all unless he wears it around his neck for all to see and steal? With his family's lives on the line, he began to appreciate them even more for what they were, and was grateful for the sacrifices that they would make for him and began to truly enjoy the time that they had together. Only when they themselves were six feet under could he rightfully honor them for being such precious assets in his future success.

He had felt and understood all of this once, this gilded sense of reason. It had guided him and his choices, his actions, his life. But what for? In the end, it was inevitable that he would end up here. What was anything worth? Love, success, happiness? They were all illusions to govern the world and keep everything functioning as it should. It is like this for everyone, as everyone is an expendable contrivance in the mechanics of time and space. But Light was empty. They'd stripped him of these illusions and opened his eyes to the truth. That was the most painful part of it all, being able to comprehend the fact that everything is worthless in the end. Why even try? Being filled with such falseness... splendid opium.

No, it wouldn't bother Light much at all whether or not his family had cried, mourned. It was all a thing of the distant past now anyway. They could have been in their own void by now. No, it was just a curious question. How had they - no, how had the rest of the world carried on once Light vanished? What were they told? Did they remember him as the darling brother and son that he always played off or did they discover who the real Light Yagami was in the end? The simplest way to know, was a matter of whether or not they had cried. After all, who could love someone who killed their own father? Like that fool, Matsuda, they wouldn't be able to understand that sacrifices _must_ be made for the betterment of all, of absolutely everything. And now Light wondered what sort of horrors they would be facing in their void.

Light had hoped that he would feel some sort of gratification from the thought of his mother and father burning. He thought that he could work his mind into believing that they and all others who had opposed him were there for divine judgement, his judgement. Of course, he wouldn't have been one to tip the scales more in the favor of someone simply due to the fact that the obligation had been set on them to bring him up in life, for that was a popular feat that they understood before initiating. No, Light wouldn't have let bias get in the way of anything, he would have been a fair judge. But alas, he couldn't bring himself to believe any of it, and in the end, he was still so cold. It wasn't the wind anymore, it was Light himself. The one who had been harboring the chill in the empty chasm in his chest. The ice had taken the place of a simple and pure life force, the steady and rhythmic pulse that is bound to mortality and life alike, as his had long since expired and now Light found that if he tried hard enough, he could almost feel his body throbbing with the cold that was being eternally pumped through him.

It was so cold now, colder than before. The wind had picked up again and was wailing throughout the darkness. Still, the cold didn't disturb Light from his static position. He only found himself yearning for a hot pulse to instead pump warmth through him to his coldest areas. He could still remember how it felt, that warmth. He, along with most all others, had taken that simple feeling for granted. He wished that he could forget the feeling of it, but the more he realized was gone, the more he wished to have _all_ of it back. All of it. The trials and turmoil of life, the hardships, hunger, the simple sorrows that you can only know in life... The ignorance of pain stronger than that of what you feel when you break your arm or lose a finger. Such blissful oddities that are only in bloom for so long.

It was still so dark.

So quiet.

The wind then began to die down slowly to a faint whistling and Light felt something soft and feathery fall lightly against his forehead. This shocked Light and in that instant, he found his body freezing up and the tips of his fingers curling inward slightly. With such a small reflex, Light felt his fingers scrape into the stiffness that he had been laying on and heard the rough, grainy sound it made as it shifted beneath him. Though not by much, this was the most that Light had actually felt himself move, deliberately and not merely as hallucination, in what felt like eons. In that small moment, Light could hear the sound of the bones creaking in his fingers as though he were an old swing set that hadn't been properly oiled in quite some time.

It was awe inspiring, such a wonderful feeling. Now the tips of his fingers which had moved were warm and twitching, wanting to move again and to be able to feel what he hadn't been able to feel for so long. How was this happening? When had he gained so much back? The chasm in Light's chest tingled softly as he felt it heaving and pushing the stagnant air back up through him and out his nose in a sort of anxious, voiceless laughter. It was so dry.

Staring directly into the void above him and with a new found sense of determination, Light willed his head to move, slowly. The bones in his neck and jaw which had been still for so long groaned and popped and Light felt the softness on his forehead fall farther down the side of his face as his head turned onto its left side and hit the hard object and Light smiled when he realized that that object was gray.

A very dull and blurry gray.

As the side of his head met the object that he was laying on and pushed deeper into its sand, he could see that it, like the void above him expanded for a long distance in a very blurry haze. He couldn't make out any definite shapes with it, only shades and the place where it faded into the void. The soft wind now blew directly into Light's face blowing small bites of gray past his vision. Light tried to close his eyes but found that his eyelids would not move. So instead, he tried to focus in on the many small objects in front of him. It was no easy task, as no matter how hard he tried, his eyes didn't seem to line up in the right way to focus the gray toned light and only seemed to make things fuzzier. This caused Light to become slightly frustrated with himself and without thinking, he began to move the arm that had been still at his left side up and toward the small objects. As it drug up through the sand, it moved over or crushed many of the other objects, including the one that he had kept his gaze on and it seemingly evaporated in his vision when it was reduced to a fine powder.

Light pulled his lips apart weakly and blew out the air within him slowly, but forcefully and saw a small cloud of the powder drift off into the wind and fly back over him and he felt his smile widen slightly, though painfully.

The view before him was becoming much clearer and Light could now tell that the horizon where the gray met the void was raised a lot higher than the rest of the area and seemed to encompass the small 'valley' around him. Light turned his head back up to the void, and was glad when it was an easier thing to do this time. The infinite blackness now had a certain depth about it and in a triumphant moment of realization, Light realized that the whole time he had been staring up at a starless sky.

 _He'd escaped._

Light forced out another guttural laugh, slow and quiet. He didn't know how this had happened, how he had escaped the infernal void. He didn't care. He didn't care where he was now. He was already forgetting the pain, the images locked in his head - he'd found the silver key. Everything was better now, it would all be alright, everything would. As long as he was out of the void, everything would be fine. Light felt his laugh grow louder and louder as he laid there in a euphoric stupor brought on by the knowledge of his freedom until at last he couldn't stop himself.

What a wonderful hour it was. Light had always known that in the end, everything would always go his way. It was owed to him. He _was_ above the consequences. For a time, he had been crushed, he had been suppressed; but that was the only way to keep him from achieving, to stall him. But he'd made it out and soon he would be back on top. He had once thought that everything was over. It was the time when he was broken on the floor of the warehouse. The gig was up, he was bleeding and dying. He'd lost all of his dignity that day. For a while, when things looked grim, he thought that he could somehow work his way out of it, somehow slip through the cracks like all of the times before. But he couldn't that time. And worst of all, Light decided, was that he lost simply to a chance of bad luck.

Near. Nate River. The one name which he had been too slow to write, the image of it quickly scribbled on the false notebook's blue-lined page was now forever embedded in Light's mind. The _child_ had had nothing on him, no direct evidence, no witnesses, no plan. All he had was that same chance of luck. Everything had been a game of chance for him, he gained everything through this. He was experienced with it. Clearly _someone_ favored him, they must be jealous.

Yet, though he had nothing, the child had beaten Light. Beat him at his own damned game. He was the one who was to succeed L, the _next L_ if you will. He was so incompetent, so inferior. He was _cheating_. He didn't deserve the title of L. The real L, the one whose name Light would never know... he was different. L was a truly worthy opponent. He fought valiantly and he fell nobly at the hands of Kira, how it should have been. Not with Light humiliated, destroyed in such a way for all to see. This kid didn't know where to draw the line.

But it was Light's fault. He had allowed it to happen. In those final days, he had become sloppy... inconsiderate of all outcome... cocky even. It was the knowledge that he could be caught at any time, found out by any insignificant thing, any minor detail that kept him on his toes in those early years. It was L who he considered to be a threat. And when he was gone, Light saw himself as invincible. And the truth was...

" _Are you okay...?"_

The sentence came suddenly from the grey, causing Light to cease his laughter instantly. The sound of footsteps approaching, crunching through the bleak sand that he hadn't heard before became louder and louder, moving at a slow pace. Light laid there in shock, quiet and motionless. He hadn't even had the time to anticipate the possibility of another living being in this gray world. He could hear the footsteps approaching by his head and realized he only had enough time to ponder one question: friend or foe?

A dark shadow now hovered over Light's form and it took more energy than Light thought it would to slowly raise his head to look up at the being standing over him. This person was lanky and frail and seemed to sway gently with the wind. From Light's view point, they were a silhouette as dark as their own shadow and the tattered poncho that they wore was faded into brown and covered in markings from some long lost dialect.

"... _Are you hurt...?"_ They asked softly. " _Can you stand...?"_

All Light could do was stare up in shock at this strange creature. They must have been several feet taller than a normal man, yet the spoke with the voice of a very small child... a timid child. Light still couldn't see their face.

When Light didn't answer, he saw them tilt their head from above, then the grotesque sound of their knees cracking as they bent down closer to Light, silver insect wingers flickering from behind. Long, rotted-black fingers gingerly slid under Light's shoulders and before Light could do anything to object, raised him up so he was in a sitting position with his legs outstretched in front of him, one half bent.

" _... There_..." The voice in itself wasn't particularly kind, in fact it was somewhat emotionless. " _Can you sit on your own...?"_

Light didn't respond. Instead, he looked down dumbfounded at his rotted and hole-filled clothing; bullet wounds and blood stains still mostly visible in his white dress shirt and his shoes were scuffed down far into the once expensive leather. The skinny monster removed its hands from Light and stood behind him. Light could hear their wings twitching with a typical insect buzz as they slowly walked to stand at Light's left side.

Bending again on their knees, Light could now see that the creature's face was covered by a wooden-carved oni mask with jagged, protruding fangs and small eyeholes making it impossible for Light to see its eyes. It cocked its head at him again and raised an elongated, black arm towards Light who quickly raised his own arm to knock it away and gasped when his hand came into view. His skin was dry and withered, stretched tightly around his bones. Slowly bringing it closer to his face, he found that the fingernails were cracked and embedded deep into his flesh, a couple of them missing. Light turned his head quickly to look over at his other hand, this one the same but sporting a large hole in the area just above his wrist. The edges were cracking and crumbling and Light instantly recognized it as an old gunshot wound.

Light raised both of his hands up across his face and felt the same dryness as before. His ears had mostly rotted away, leaving small stubs that stuck closely to the sides of his face and he found that his eyes which he could not close were merely sockets. Running his hands up through his hair, he found that most of it was intact, but very wispy and clumped together in a disgusting mess. As he ran his hands back down his face, he found that his lips were rotted in a sort of grimace that left part of his teeth exposed. He looked as though he had been dug up from a decade old grave.

"... _What is wrong...?"_ The creature asked.

Light again didn't answer. His hands were still clutching his crumbling face and he shook his head slowly from side to side.

"... _What is your name…? Do you have one...?"_

"..."

" _Would it help if I told you mine_...?"

Light turned his head to look into the eyes of the oni mask. He could feel the intense gaze from the eyes behind them and this made him slightly uncomfortable.

" _I am Kim."_

Light slid his hands down from his face and sat them in the area on the ground between his legs. "… I am Kira." His voice didn't sound like his own when he spoke, it was deeper and orotund, almost raspy even.

Kim simply nodded in an uncomfortably watchful manner then stood, again becoming silhouetted far above Light.

" _... Can you stand...?"_ It repeated less patiently.

"... I haven't tried yet." Light's answer was honest. "What does it matter to you anyway?"

Kim stood quiet for a second. " _... I was sent to retrieve you."_

Light felt himself stiffen. There were more of them here...

" _... It would be best if you... could walk on your own."_ Kim turned in the direction behind Light and slowly began to shuffle forward. " _... So I don't have... to carry you..."_

Light didn't like the idea of being carried by this thing which was already headed back from whence it came... and apparently intended for Light to follow it there.

Standing was a harder task than Light had first thought, which wasn't too shocking as he could still barely move his comatose-stiffened legs. After the first failed attempt to 'simply stand,' it was clear that Light would have to somehow find some support to push himself up. He pulled his legs in closer to his body and tried to turn in the direction where Kim, who was still moving forward without so much as a glimpse back at Light, was headed, but instead felt his body tip over; almost on his stomach if his shoulder and forearm hadn't caught him.

Kim's head turned slowly to look back over his shoulder at Light, who was now failing to support his weight with his shoulder. Light grimaced into the sand as he watched the creature reluctantly turn and begin to return with a snail's pace. He tried harder to push himself up and felt his body trembling. Was the gravity here this much stronger or had his strength decayed with the rest of him? Kim had been more than fifteen yards in front of Light the last time he had checked, but when he pulled his head up from the gray sand again, he was met with rotted feet with curling, ivory claws.

"I can do it myself…" Light snarled.

" _We don't have so much time to waste…"_ Light could hear the creature reaching for him.

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" With that, Light threw himself upward towards the creature's throat with lightning speed.

But when he thought he saw his hand's make contact with the slimy flesh, Kim darted back much quicker, body quivering like a grasshopper, and landed in a distant, leafless tree. The tree was thin and black also and as he crouched, his limbs seemed to merge in with the branches.

" _… He warned me to be careful… when I found you…"_ Kim's voice shook lightly. " _That you would be 'feisty' when you awoke…"_ Light recognized now that the emotion sliding out with Kim's words was fear.

This creature, though larger and more agile, was for some reason afraid of Light.

"Who told you that?" Light called out to the creature as he approached the tree.

In the valley, there was no foliage of any kind, save for the few trees scattered and dispersed across the gray flatland, all of them decrepit and bent. Looking up at Kim, from beneath this tree, Light could see its poncho flapping wildly in the chilling wind.

" _… But you can walk now… That's good…"_

Again, Kim sprang up from the tree, this time in the direction that they had originally planned to head in. As it landed, its silver wings flickered to steady its landing on the hard, gray earth.

"Hey, wait!" Light called, quickly running after the creature.

As Light ran, he felt just how light his body was compared to how it used to feel when he ran. His feet dug deep clefts into the ground, causing dust to fly up and for Light himself to sway and almost lose balance multiple times. He felt silly, like a child learning to walk for the first time, however, when he would look to his side and see how quickly the bleak landscape rushed past, he realized that no child nor man would be able to keep up.

Kim was seemingly waiting up ahead for Light, but once he came into close enough proximity, it launched itself further across the valley, causing Light to stumble and fall into the small cloud of dust it left behind. It didn't hurt when Light hit the ground with a hard thud, nor when he breathed in the raised dust did he cough. When he looked up again, Kim was waiting, looking back at him. He could also see when he lowered his gaze just a little that the many small objects that were littered about the area, like the one directly in front of him now, were bone fragments; some shattered, some whole. Light stood again and continued to chase after the surprisingly quick monster.

The first couple of times this happened, Light had thought that Kim was trying to run from him. Clearly, that fear of Light that he'd seen earlier was still present, the way it looked down at him each time it flew farther away like an important piece of paper caught in the breeze. But, every time it did this, it would just stand there and wait for Light to almost reach him and repeat the process. This caused Light to realize that maybe this thing valued its duty more than its security, as if it wanted to, all it had to do was fly off far enough for Light to lose it all together. And, after a few more rounds of this, Light had learned not to stop as he drew near it, but to keep on running. It wasn't going to let him catch it anyhow, and it wasn't worth another face dive into the dirt.

Soon, the more elevated parts of the land that encircled the valley were before them, and from only a couple hundred yards away, Light could see that they were much taller than he had first realized. They jutted up from the windswept ground at harsh, near vertical angles and looming high overhead, almost seemed to curve inward, trapping whatever wasn't strong enough or smart enough to find a way out.

Here, Kim stopped on a low cliff which was just out of arms reach for Light. As Light neared the mountain, he skidded to a stop and looked up to Kim without any clear sign of exhaustion. He was waiting for his guide to tell how they were going to make it over the steep mountain range, but as he waited below and the seconds continued on in silence, he brought himself to speak:

"… How do we cross this?"

" _… I'm not sure…"_ Kim sighed slowly.

Light felt his face scrunch in disbelief and confusion. Had this creature really entered this valley without a plan, or even an idea on how they would escape it? Oh, but Light had forgotten… They just hadn't planned for how Light was going to get out. Kim had wings and could easily manage this small intervening obstacle.

" _Would you like for me to carry you… now…?"_

Light ignored the question, not knowing whether it was sincere or subtly mocking and walked up to the base of the mountain. There weren't many nooks or places to grab on to, the walls were fairly smooth as though they had been carved out by some large butter knife and raised from the surrounding ground ages ago. If there was nothing to grab on to, then Light decided that he would make some.

Scanning the nearby ground, all Light could find were small pebbles and yellowing bones. He reached down for one of the larger bone fragments, unsure of which kind or to what creature it had once belonged and walked back up to the base. Kim was watching him, its expression unknown and hidden by the mask.

" _… What do you plan to do…?"_

"Tell me, Kim," Light started, holding the large chunk of bone in his degenerated hands. "Am I like you?"

Kim was silent for a moment before answering, " _… What… do you mean…?"_

"I mean are we the same type of entity… is everything in this world of the same species…?"

Kim's next answer baffled Light. " _… We are different... You are not like me…"_

Light gripped the bone tighter and pulled it back behind his head, aiming it at the rock's surface. "Then what _are_ you?"

" _… Shinigami."_ They stated bluntly.

'I thought as much,' Light thought to himself. "And what am I…?"

Kim didn't answer. The wind that had been blowing in from outside the valley had stopped, blocked by the mountain and Kim sat there, completely unmoving.

Light chuckled lowly to himself. "Can I feel pain?"

" _… Not in the same wa-"_

Kim's soft voice was drowned out by the thundering boom that resonated when Light pounded the bone forward into the side of the mountain. The bone shattered against his palms, sending rock and bone shards flying in all directions. The cliff that Kim was perched upon shook violently, as did the rest of the immediate escarpments before they began to crumble and slide out of place with a deafening noise.

Light stood frozen as the large boulders tumbled down and didn't notice when Kim swooped down from the cliff until they had him by his midsection. His feet drug turbulently against the ground, slowing the both of them as the rocks crashed around, sending forth a blinding cloud of dust and sand which swallowed them. When the dust cleared, Light laid before the end of the massive rockslide with a couple smaller rocks still tumbling down past his feet. Kim was no longer holding him.

" _… Please…"_ Light heard from behind him. Turning, he saw Kim standing a couple yards away, their left wing flickering on and off violently. _"… Do warn me… before you attempt to test… the limits of your power… again…"_

Light was silent as they walked past him, back toward the mountains. As the passed him, he could see that their left wing had been torn up from the middle and pieces of it hung off by narrow connectors like a shatter stained glass window which had been hit by some kid's baseball. Turning his vision back to the rockslide, Light could see that he had broken in a new crevice that ran all the way up to the peak of the cliffs. It would be easy to climb.

"Can we die here?" Light asked climbing to his feet.

 _"… There are ways…"_

"Is this one of them?"

 _"No…"_ Kim began to pull themselves up over the nearest boulder and onto the rockslide. " _… But it would have been difficult… to dig you out…"_

Light followed the injured creature, carefully stepping over the shifting rocks. "Can you fly?"

" _… This body… will not remain damaged…"_ The wing continued to flinch sporadically as they spoke. _"… But for now, we must walk…"_

The climb up the mountain was a silent one. Kim was now kept a lot closer to Light, but still Light didn't know what to say. He didn't feel bad, nor responsible for Kim's wing. If they were so greatly opposed to walking, they could've let Light dig himself out. Of course, that would have slowed their journey to meet the person who sent Kim, whoever they were. Of course, as they had said themselves, the wing would heal. But who knew how long it would be until that happened?

Light was in the Shinigami World. He was walking alongside a shinigami. The person who they were going to meet was probably also a shinigami. Death gods with the power to control and manipulate the deaths of humans from this desolate world and use the humans' remaining lifespans for themselves. The choice of immortality. Never once had Light ever imagined that he would see this world with his own eyes, feel it with his own hands – no matter the condition they were in. Was this world the nothingness that Ryuk had once warned him of, so very long ago? The place where he was damned to according to the rules of the Death Note?

No, it couldn't be… In that case… The void. Where was the void? The darkness where he had spent so long in agony. That was nothingness… Right?

Kim reached the top before Light did and stood there with their back to him, waiting. Light pulled himself from his thoughts as he climbed over the final boulder and felt the flat surface of the peak. Here, he could see that the mountain ended suddenly, with only a few yards across the top before it dropped again into another steep wall. Looking back, he could barely see the trees for the fog in the valley below. The whole mountain range was a sort of bowl which surrounded it and it didn't seem very natural.

 _"… Do you know… where you are, Light Yagami…?_

"… Yes."

" _… And where we are going…?"_

Light walked the short distance to stand next to Kim on the edge of the cliff. What he sae below startled him and he had to keep himself from stumbling back behind the taller shinigami. In the land below, as far as the eye could see, thousands of dark figures roamed. Some seemed to mosey by the others doing their own things, some were grouped in small circles around smaller boulders or by the entrances of small caves. Larger, fuller bones were visible here. They were yellowed or bleached white from the rays of some long forsaken star. The skulls of huge, unknown creatures were scattered in some sort of graveyard, though now many of the dark figures lurked beside or in them, napping. In the distance, another mountain range rose much higher than the one they were on. It was made of the same gray earth that the rest of the world was made of, but the closer it got to the top, the more a thick layer of white began to cover it. From this distance, it almost looked like the snow at the top of high alps, but Light knew it was just more bone.

"Are they all shinigami…?" Light asked, voice trembling. He hadn't had any reason to believe that so many of them existed before.

" _… You have no reason to fear them… any of us…"_ Light couldn't turn his gaze from the view in front of him to look at Kim. " _… We cannot harm you…"_ Kim then raised their black arm out towards the horizon. Their finger was bent, a long claw pointing toward a strange looking rock just before the next mountain range. It was hard to tell how tall it was, but considering how big it looked from this distance, Light realized it wasn't merely a boulder. Several smaller rocks like it were dotted against the mountains in the horizon, but this one by far was the biggest.

"Is that where we're going?"

Kim nodded, lowering their arm.

"So how do we-"

Kim had taken the final closing steps to the edge of the cliff and in the middle of Light's sentence let gravity take control. Looking over the edge, Light could see that it was just as far down as it had been up and to say that Kim was elegant as they skid and thrashed, trying to keep from falling and rolling the rest of the way down, would be an extreme overstatement. The other shinigami didn't take much notice when Kim finally stopped, a distance away from the base due to the extreme momentum from the fall. When they turned and looked back up to Light, he realized that it would be a much quicker trip _down_ the mountain.

Though his inborn humanly fear of heights was still present, Light still inched closer to the edge of the cliff. The trail that had been broken through the side of the mountain as Kim slid through it was deep and small rocks still tumbled from it, causing Light's fear of heights to quickly turn to that of losing a leg.

The shinigami at the bottom finally seemed to notice Kim, standing there and looking to the top of the mountain. Light watched as they followed Kim's gaze until they were pointing at him and nudging one another. He couldn't hear anything they were saying from there but would occasionally make out a gruff laugh or cough. He couldn't tell if Kim was saying anything or trying to offer any kind of encouragement. If they were, they weren't being expressive with their body, for they stood perfectly still, oni mask staring up indifferently. To add to it all, Light now had an audience.

The edge of the cliff crumbled a little as Light set his worn foot over it. All it would take is a small leap of faith and Light found his in the idea that nothing here could kill him and also in his earlier experience of pain being an irrelevant feeling. He felt the bulk of his fear as he stepped off and felt the world rush at him. His thin hair blew back behind him and he felt the cold wind blowing into him. Unlike Kim, Light couldn't find his footing against the mountain and soon felt himself spinning and tumbling down the mountain side. Each time he hit a new cliff, the force of the fall would push his body off once again before he could hold on to anything. When he felt that he was no longer rolling, he realized that he had reached the bottom.

The crowd that had formed around him wasn't very big, but their laughs rang louder than anything else around. Kim didn't move to help Light up from where he had landed on his stomach, but instead turned and continued on through the crowd in the same slowness as before. Light had lost both of his shoes and his tie on the way down and his jacket had been ripped at the right arm's seam so that the cloth hung off, connected by the thin threads that hadn't snapped yet. He didn't even try to dust himself off as he started through the crowd.

"Hey, hey!" He heard one of the shinigami say to another. "Doesn't that guy seem familiar?"

"Eh, you're right…" The other responded.

"Isn't that Ryuk's pet human?"

Ryuk. Kim turned and grabbed Light, who was already facing the other disgusting creatures, by the arm, preventing him from moving closer to them. " _We must keep moving, Light…"_

"Oi, so it is the human!" One cackled. "How'd he get here?"

"What do you know about Ryuk?" Light snapped with a voice that would be intimidating to most humans. "Where is he?!"

"Hunh? What's that? You want to see him?" The shinigami that he was speaking to had stepped forward from the crowd to ridicule him. This one had no arms but stood taller than the rest of them. The skin from where the arms should have been was pulled tight around the rest of his body and flaked off like gross dandruff every time he spoke, all the way to its head where two yellow eyeballs stared down at him from beneath a helmet of half a human skull which covered the upper part of its face.

"Yeah," Another one spoke up. "There's no fun in meeting him. You're not making any sense."

Light tried to step forward, to lunge at them. But when he did, Kim's grip on his arm tightened. He had lost his dignity and prowess before to a hoard of unworthy pigs. It killed him to think back upon that memory. In life, he had always been one to keep his cool, to make it through to the bitter end without letting his emotions hinder him too much. But in that one situation, that had gotten him killed. And now, in this world of death where death is near to impossible, Light was ready to make these low-grade fools answer and obey him as the true superior, the god that he was.

But Kim had already begun to move forward through the crowd, away from the other vulgar shinigami and there was nothing Light could do to fight it unless he turned against his only, already fearful, guide. Without Kim, his purpose in this world would remain unknown to Light and eventually disintegrate with him back into the void.

"Hey look a' that," One of them snorted. "He's Kim's pet now."

"Oh poor thing, no wonder he's acting so disrespectful."

Kim stopped.

"That weirdo's actually doing something now?"

" _Hehe_ , probably not the right way."

"Since when has Kim ever been useful for anything?"

Kim released.

As the slender, black fingers uncoiled themselves from his arm, Light shot himself into the unrespecting crowd and was satisfied as he felt his hands break into their chests and throats. Kim didn't turn back but slowly trotted toward their far off destination as the crowd cried out in shock and a great cloud of dust and rust flowed past their feet.

The remaining crowd of shinigami scurried off in different directions, pushing past others who had stopped to see what all of the commotion was about. They sent hoarse whispers back to one another and quickly split to make a path for Kim as Light followed, trying his best to suppress a devilish smirk. There were many witnesses and Light became aware the further he and Kim went through the crowd, of just how quickly the once chattering world had grown silent.

The trek to the distant rock that Light had seen at the top of the low mountain was a lot longer than the one across the vale where he awoke. Soon, Light had found that the large mass of shinigami only extended to a certain point and that the farther out into the barren desert they went, the fewer the shinigami appeared. The ones that hung this far out of the crowd were mostly huddled around the smaller rocks that Light had also seen earlier. Up close, Light could tell that they were hallow and held a couple large holes in them where the shinigami would enter and exit, though they didn't seem to be that popular. Once in a while, they would pass a small group or two huddled around a low rising boulder playing some sort of game with small skulls. They seemed very unenthusiastic, though, and would only glare when Light and Kim walked past.

The rock that they were headed to could be seen through the fog. It was certainly much larger than the others and Light could see one large hole toward the top that was way bigger than the rest. Light could see a figure hidden in the rock's shadow in that hole. The figure didn't seem to notice the two renegades.

"… Is that who sent you to find me?" Light asked, staring up at the person with dark sockets.

" _… Yes…"_

"Do you know what they want me for?"

" _… Yes…"_

"… Will you tell me or should I find out on my own?"

Kim stopped suddenly and turned to look down at Light. They were now at the foot of the great rock and Light could see many holes close to the bottom that one could enter through but wondered how he was going to make it to the top.

" _This is where I stop…"_

"You won't go in with me?"

Kim had already begun to walk past Light but he turned to watch the creature as it walked off.

" _… I was asked to let this… meeting… be private…"_ The fog had already started to engulf Kim.

 _"We will meet again… Light Yagami."_

Light could hear the harsh sound of flapping in the wind and watched as Kim's faint silhouette lifted into the air with healed wings.

Light was on his own now. Looking back up to the large hole in the rock, he couldn't see who had summoned him anymore because of the angle. He didn't have to meet them. He didn't have to crawl into the rock. He didn't know the intentions of this shinigami, what if they wanted to harm him? But again, Kim had told him that the shinigami of this world couldn't hurt him, even if they wanted to. The growing sense of curiosity within Light was also beginning to overwhelm his others choices and soon, Light found himself stepping through one of the massive holes that sat level with the ground, pondering the age old question, 'why was I born?'

Clearly, he hadn't escaped the void on his own. With only a fleeting memory of dark wings around him, Light understood that someone had pulled him from it.

Inside, the rock seemed a lot larger than it did on the outside. There was a great staircase made of the same gray dirt taking up most of the space within that curved and ascended at near random. Approaching the staircase, Light saw that it also extended down into the dry earth continuing on infinitely in the darkness. Where did it lead?

Light brought his foot to the first of many steps, the noise it created echoing off the close walls loudly. With every step up he took, Light felt that the person at the top became more and more aware of his presence. It wasn't that he felt fearful, per se, he just had his healthy share of anxiety. What would this person want from Light? What would be the reason of his incarnation? He didn't have much time to think these things over as the remaining steps were nearing few. Only when Light reached the top did he realize that he hadn't planned out what he was going to say.

It was dark in the small room that the stairs opened up to. The figure in front of him still had its back turned, staring out over the world. They wore a poorly sewn cloak which fell to their knees and had the hood pulled up over their head. They didn't move or say anything. They did nothing to acknowledge Light.

"... Are you the one who sent Kim to retrieve me?"

Light knew instantly as the figure spoke just who had sent for him. The shinigami was silent for a moment before answering in a familiar, raspy voice, "... I am."

Light felt a small smirk grace his gnarled features. It only made sense that the person looking for him would be the only person in this unfamiliar world who knew him.

It was Ryuk, the shinigami who had once dropped a Death Note to Earth in the hopes of a human finding it and doing something interesting. Light had been that human and when all of the fun ended, Ryuk had abandoned him. After the years that they had spent together, the numerous apples that Light had had to buy to sate a wild craving. The shinigami had once told him that he wasn't an alley or an enemy. And by God did he prove it.

Ryuk chuckled darkly, his slouching shoulders heaving as he did so. The shinigami turned his head to look at Light from an oblique angle through one red and yellow eye and Light saw his same old sharp-toothed, crooked smile.

"It's been a long time, Light..." Ryuk said before returning his gaze to the hole. "You haven't aged well, have you?"

"And you don't seem to have changed much at all." Light retorted. "How's life without apples?"

"You know, we _do_ have apples here..." There was something forlorn in the way that Ryuk spoke now. "I suppose you're wondering what's going on, huh? But you're a smart one, and I'm going to assume you already know where you are."

"The Shinigami World..." Light spoke calmly to the person who was now living on the remainder of his own lifespan. "It's just as unimpressive as I had always imagined."

"Well, aren't you arrogant?" Ryuk was now facing Light completely. "I thought that maybe you'd be a little bit jumpier when talking to the person who ended your life."

Light felt the air catch in his throat, but didn't show it. Light had pieced it together before that his fatal heart attack had been the result of a Death Note, however there had been no way to know before who had written it as it could've been anyone near one of the real notebooks. But now…

"Why fearful?" Light liked the way his voice sounded in the small room, so menacing. "I think you should be the one showing signs of anxiety. After all, I could be possessing an extraordinary grudge against you."

Ryuk snorted. "Would that be a threat?"

"It's a peace offering, actually; a mutual understanding. The past is in the past. How can we ever strive for the future if we keep these burdens looming over our heads?"

Light _was_ in a way, resentful. Like all of the others, Ryuk had turned out to be a treacherous disciple. But he was Light's key, he held the answers to what he needed to know. There was a way out of this world, Ryuk and other shinigami had done it before. Ryuk was going to tell him how before either of them left this room.

Ryuk stood, silently staring for a moment. "Heh… You think I don't see how you're staring at me now? I know your definition of peace, Light. What is it that _you_ want?

"… I want to proceed."

Ryuk scoffed to his side. "Of course… But before we can do that, we need something. Come here."

Light was hesitant to go near Ryuk. He was still new to this world and he realized that he hadn't even scratched the surface yet in what mysteries lie buried beneath. Stepping forward, he could be stepping into some kind of trap. Ryuk still hadn't explained to him what the reason for the meeting was.

Ryuk looked back at Light when he failed to obey and was now coming closer. Light didn't move as Ryuk approached him. The shinigami stopped halfway across the small room and shook his head in disapproval.

"What do you think I'm hiding...?" Ryuk reached into his cloak and removed a small bead. Holding it out to Light with ebony-clawed hands, he said, "Here. Eat this."

The bead that Ryuk held was a brilliant vermillion color, contrasting greatly, even in the dark room that they were in, to the dull grayness of the rest of the world. Whatever this was that Ryuk was holding out to him between thumb and index fingers, it didn't look very edible.

Light extended his right hand and Ryuk's smile widened a little as he dropped the bead into Light's palm from a couple inches above, careful not to let it roll through the hole in his wrist. The bead was no bigger than the size of a small grape, but felt very heavy in Light's hand, heavier than lead.

"What is it...?" Light asked confused.

"A gift... from the Shinigami King."

Light was still for a moment, trying to consider all of the possible pros and cons of eating the bead. The hand that held it was shaking from the weight of the thing and after a moment of silence in his head, he realized that whatever this bead was, it was from the Shinigami King, not Ryuk. If it was poison of some sort, then he wasn't meant to stay in this world for very long anyway.

Opening his mouth to insert the bead made a strange crackling sound as his skin shifted. He didn't choke on the heaviness of the bead or gag on the horrifically bitter taste of it as it went down, as he thought he would. It seemed to begin to dissolve almost instantly as it entered Light's mouth, even with the absence of any bodily fluid, so he had to swallow it quickly. Finally with it down, all he could do was stare on at Ryuk who was now clearly suppressing a laugh.

A couple more seconds ticked by and Light still didn't seem to understand the reason for swallowing the bead. "What was th-"

Light felt his stomach knot violently. He felt sick. Ryuk had turned his back to him again, his laughs escaping easily in bouts. Light gagged and swayed as the world began to spin. He could feel something moving inside of him. Was it _indeed_ poison? Pulling open his shirt caused the few surviving buttons to pop off and Light looked down to see his decaying stomach visibly twisting and pushing against his skin. What had Ryuk done to him?

Light dropped to his knees, the nausea building. "Wh-What's happening…?! Ryu-GAAAH!" His fists clenched together as he doubled over on his knees, desperately clutching his convulsing stomach. He was gagging repeatedly now and though he wanted to beg Ryuk to reverse it, he couldn't speak.

"'Just let it run its course.' That's what human doctors say about everything, isn't it?" Ryuk was laughing in between words as he spoke but calmed himself to continue. "I know it's uncomfortable now, but you'll thank me for it soon..."

Light couldn't imagine how he could ever thank Ryuk for this as he let out another scream. From where he was writhing on the cold, dirt floor, Light couldn't imagine how this could possibly produce anything good. He could feel something expanding, growing in his stomach. His gagging soon led to coughing and with the coughing, he found a bright, vermillion slime falling from his mouth. It wasn't necessarily pain that he was feeling, but it wasn't comfortable either.

Light pushed himself forward, still grasping his stomach, to reach for Ryuk, but fell forward hopelessly onto his side. The slime hadn't stopped and was now forcing its way up through Light's nasal cavity where it ran down the side of his face from his nose. Why was this happening? A moment later, Light felt whatever was inside of him disconnect itself somehow with a very audible ' _snap_.' He cried out again as his insides began expanding and contracting, moving the disconnected object up through his esophagus.

Ryuk watched in amusement as Light gagged and vomited the red slime on his hands and knees and then as his throat expanded and he began to choke violently on the object. Light reached up, at first clawing at his throat in a fit of desperation, but then to try and reach in his mouth and remove the object which had only begun to enter the inside of his mouth. It was too slippery to try and get a good hold of it, but still Light tried to pull it out until finally, both of his hands dropped to the floor and Light sat mouth agape with the slime pooling beneath him. With one more final wheeze, the object was visibly hanging out of Light's mouth. The object was long and he could now grab it hard enough to pull it out, where it landed with a sickening ' _squelch'_ in the puddle below.

Light collapsed, still gagging and wheezing to the side of the puddle as he heard heavy footsteps resound as Ryuk walked past him. Through the corner of his vision, he watched as Ryuk lifted the disgusting, slime covered object from the puddle and begin to unroll it.

"... Here we go..." Ryuk cooed to himself.

Light, whose senses had begun to return to normal, but still had a line of slime hanging from his mouth, used the wall for support as he stood shakily. He didn't want to remain downed and vulnerable, especially now. What had Light just… birthed? Ryuk had the object in one hand, shaking it out, causing the slime to fly in every direction haphazardly. Light couldn't make out what it was from under all of the slime, but could see that it was the same color as the bead, but had some sort of white rimming on it.

"...W... What is _that_...?" Light asked wearily, obvious venom laced in his voice.

Ryuk's smirk widened as he held the object out for Light to see. "It's your Death Note."

Light almost fell over again as the remainder of the slime forced its way up his throat, causing him instinctually to cover his mouth, causing the slime to pour out from between his fingers.

"I told you you'd thank me..."

He was right. Ryuk had been right. Though thoroughly disgusted and confused, Light was glad. A Death Note... the ultimate weapon of mass murder, as it was once called... Light was beginning to understand what was going on, the reason that he was brought back. Kira wasn't dead yet.

Light felt a smile pull across his slime-covered face and forced himself to stand up straighter. Everything was falling into place.

"... Let me see it." Light demanded confidently after a vain attempt at wiping some of the slime off with the back of his sleeve.

"Eh," Ryuk drug the word out as he walked away from Light and closer to the massive hole in the wall. "You'll have your chance soon..." And with a flick of his bony wrist, flung the beautiful, red notebook through the rugged window.

Light couldn't hold in his gasp. "Wh-what are you doing?!" He stammered.

Rushing past Ryuk to the window, Light stopped suddenly. Looking down, he didn't see the barren landscape that he was expecting. Through the hole in the stony wall, Light could see an incredible view of the luscious, green planet that he instantly recognized as Earth. It spun on its axis much faster, though, than what could be normal for the typical day and night cycle. It was so vibrant, so great in detail… it looked more amazing than any picture that he'd ever seen NASA produce. But it seemed so far away. He almost wanted to reach out and touch it.

"… You sent my Death Note to Earth…" Light spoke coldly, still mesmerized by the spinning vision in front of him.

"So it's time for my least favorite part of all of this…" Ryuk spoke up from behind Light. "Rules and conditions."

Light turned back to Ryuk, who now had his arms crossed in the darkness, with a muddled expression.

"What...? You didn't think we'd pull you from Hell for free, didja?"

 _Hell._

Light felt all of the feeling leave his body and saw his vision flicker. Something tightened in his chest and he could hear his icy pulse thudding in his head. Hell… that's where Light had spent an eternity… Though he was staring directly at Ryuk, his mind wouldn't register a clear picture.

"… Hell…" Light choked a little as he repeated the word that stung as he spoke it.

The word alone sent such terror throughout Light's body. That horrible void, of course it couldn't have been Nothingness.

"… I'm guessin' you didn't have a picnic or nothin' there…" Ryuk huffed a breath and averted his eyes from Light's loathing gaze. "Maybe you could tell me about it sometime. I hear it's a little different for eve-"

"-You let me rot there…" Light's voice quivered. "… after telling me that I would never see Heaven or Hell…"

"Don't get all emotional now, Light. I didn't think you'd end up there either. It was a shock for the both of us…"

"… Both…?" Light's body tensed and his fingers twitched at his side as he laughed lightly. Without warning, Light sprang forward in a mad rage, grabbing Ryuk but the neck of his cloak. They were about the same height now and Light saw his rotten reflection in Ryuk's eyes as his hood fell off.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN _'THE BOTH OF US!_?'" Light's ragged breaths were coming out as sibilant hisses. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING WHIL-"

Light was cut off as, just as suddenly as Light had attacked, Ryuk retaliated, spinning the both of them around and forcing Light into the closest wall. "You've gotten really worked up, haven't you? _Heh heh_... 'A human who uses the Death Note will neither go to Heaven nor Hell…' yeah, I said that, didn't I?" Light still had Ryuk by the neck. "By the way you're so confidently holding me, I'm going to make the assumption that you've already learned that _you_ can kill shinigami and are trying to come off as threatening..." Ryuk's grip on Light's wrists tightened. "In which case, I suppose I should just carry you back to Hell now..."

Light felt his hands tremble at the thought of returning and slowly, he released Ryuk and stumbled back into the corner between the right wall and the window. It was probably a bluff, but why risk it?

"Let's not forget who got you out…"

"Ryuk…" Light breathed, not looking up. "You _lied_ to me…"

"Lied? You offend me with that, really." Ryuk spoke with mock indignation. "Aren't you being a little melodramatic?"

Light's teeth clenched. "If you didn't lie, and humans that use the Death Note really do go to Nothingness, then why…" His voice trailed off.

"I guess you were a special case or something. You certainly did leave with a full bag of luggage." Ryuk shrugged. The Shinigami made a gesture with both of his hands to represent a balance. "So when it came time to put you on the scales, eh…" Light watched as one hand shifted up and the other shifted down. "Usually, they leave it up to us shinigami to put the users of the Death Note in place in Kyomu when the time comes. However, with you..." Ryuk laughed inwardly to himself at the memory. "They wouldn't have you getting away with all that crap and running off to the Nothingness, you _really_ didn't deserve it. So, they told ol' Justin who usually handles these sorts of things that they'd handle it. H-Hey, don't give me that look!" Light then noticed that he'd been glaring at Ryuk and turned his gaze away with a huff. "By the time I got back from Earth, everything up here was already done and over with!"

Light forced an annoyed breath out. "Are you telling me there's someone higher up here than the Shinigami King?" Light shook his head. "You never explain anything."

"Sorry, I thought you would understand this on your own," Ryuk apologized as he ran a clawed hand through his greasy hair. "Yeah, there is someone higher. You didn't think that shinigami were the only ones that lived out of view, right?"

Light sighed. "I guess that makes sense… So what could be so much higher that it intimidated the Shinigami King into submission?"

Ryuk stared at him quietly in what seemed to be disbelief. "... Gee, for someone so smart, you sure are _stupid._ "

Light was taken aback by this as Ryuk continued on, "Anyways, what I was getting to was, I didn't know that the old king had been keeping tabs on you and how you... eh... 'used' the Death Note. There was nothing he could do when it was time to turn you over, of course, but he sure wasn't happy about it. So, he entrusted a special hush-hush mission to me and a couple others on how we were gonna break you out - eh oh, speaking of which," Ryuk straightened up abruptly and turned his gaze to the crude doorway, watching it as he spoke. "Keep things on the down low, okay? Someone's not gonna be happy when they hear we got you out..."

This was so much for Light to take in. He'd been salvaged from Hell and now faced the risk of being thrown back in. Not that he'd ever go back willingly. He'd put up the biggest fight of his existence before they could drag him back into that darkness. But still, the threat loomed over head and Light was undeniably scared shitless.

"...Well... what am I here for, then?" Light asked, still in his thoughts.

"Oh yeah, that..." Ryuk said, disgruntled. "If you're gonna stay here, as one of us, then you've gotta earn your keep..."

"Geh, 'one of you'? Kim said I wasn't a shinigami."

"And you're not." Ryuk was now peering out one of the smaller holes to the side of the room. "You're still human, there's no changing that. But, we have you in a sort of... disguise."

"Disguise...?"

"Yeah. You look like us, you smell like us, but you're not us. Make sense? You don't get the shinigami eyes and you don't need the lifespan cause you're, well, dead," He chortled. "And we discovered this... uncanny ability you have to kill us when you were thrashing around when we first pulled you out; thus why we had to leave you in the old colosseum."

Light remembered the valley that he awoke in and the walls of mountain that lined them. A colosseum?

"... Can you imagine that once, this place looked like Earth...? Bright and watery and full of living things that crawl up the side of your face while you sleep? Yeah, me neither." Ryuk laughed mournfully. "But those bones out there, they don't belong to any Shinigami..." Ryuk pushed himself off of the wall with the hole that he had been leaning against and stepped toward Light. "See, the King has said that if you can fix this place up, we'll hide you."

Light felt his face contort with confusion. Ryuk continued before he had a chance to open his mouth.

"And to show you just how much he believes in you and appreciates what he knows you won't turn down, he's allowed for you to first finish things up on Earth; that's where your Death Note should be right about now..."

Light was baffled. How was he going to 'fix' this place? It looked as though it had run dry ages before Earth had even formed. Light then thought back to how he once heard that some scientists were trying to introduce special forms of plants into barren places, trying to vegetate the area. If Light could bring some things back from Earth… then, there was a possibility that this would work… but nothing would run without water… Light raised his hand to grip the bridge of his nose tightly. If this place had once supported life, then the water couldn't just vanish; it must all have run deep into the ground… if they could dig some wells…

"So what do ya say?" Ryuk's gruff voice interrupted Light's train of thought. "I think it's a pretty good deal. I can't wait to see this place with a proper orchard… _hehehe_."

And what had he meant by 'finishing things up on Earth…?' Surely Earth had long forgotten Light by now. Whatever quarrels he had once had would be buried.

"Well..." Light began despondently. "Tell your king I appreciate his offer, but I can get to work immediately."

"Hmm, really?" Ryuk seemed perplexed. "I thought you'd jump at the chance to mess with that creepy lil' kid… I didn't think you'd be one to forgive so easily…"

"Near's probably dead now, Ryuk."

"Ehh, really? But it's only been a little over three years since you…"

Ryuk was stunned by Light's gaze.

Ryuk's eyes widened. "... Oh yeah..." He muttered. "Heaven and Hell run on a different timeframe than the rest of us... it just makes eternity go by a little bit... slower." Ryuk laughed, scratching his head. "For you it must've felt like decades, huh?"

Light didn't let that thought breach his mind, instead he walked past Ryuk toward the staircase. "In that case, tell the king I'll take him up on his offer…"

"Hunh? Leaving so soon?" Ryuk whined as Light walked past him.

"I've wasted too much time here…" Light stopped in front of the doorway. "Who knows how far Earth has fallen since I left. As soon as I can continue…" Light chuckled wickedly. "I need to thank Near for keeping watch…"

"That's all good and well, but," Ryuk attempted to pull Light away from the doorframe but he shook him off. "… you can't use the Death Note."

"What…?" Light spun around to see Ryuk step back defensively.

"Once the Death Note touches the Human World, it becomes part of the Human World. You can touch it and move it, but you can't write in it until you get it back from whoever finds it."

Light could feel his body shaking in anger. "Then _why_ did you chuck it before I even had the chance to touch it?!"

Ryuk grunted innocently. "... Makes things more interesting, eh! Also…" The shinigami held up and authoritative finger without turning back to Light. "You can't tell a human the name of another human; even in some discreet 'oh I dropped this paper with this person's name on it where you can find it' sort of deal..." Ryuk's face dropped at a sudden realization. "Oh I hope it doesn't fall in the ocean..."

Light released a breath and felt his body relax. This was a predicament, sure, but it wasn't one he couldn't tackle. "Anything _else_ I should know...?" He seethed. "I'm leaving now."

"One more thing," Ryuk pulled his hood back up over his unkempt, black hair. "You can reverse the disguise, you'll look the way you did, when you uh, kicked the bucket."

Light could see himself walking around as he used to among everyone else. This could be useful. The look on the brat's face when he saw Light, a vengeful revenant.

"I guess I'll let you figure out how to do that one on your own, though. Eh – but don't be reckless. Just because you died once doesn't mean you can't die again. I have found that the human body is a very fragile thing…"

Light scoffed from the doorway.

"You should really listen to me, sometimes, Light." Ryuk murmured. "Oh, and if something gets broken, don't come crying back to me to fix it. That was a onetime thing, so you'll just have to wait it out while it heals."

"I probably won't be using it much anyway." Light was staring down the stairwell, trying to tell just how far it extended into the darkness. From this angle, Light could see a small, quavering light at the bottom. It must be the way to Earth.

"Oh really?" Ryuk questioned. "I don't think your family will be very fond of your new appearance…"

Light rubbed a hand down his face. There was no way that he could visit his family after all of this.

"They've really missed you, ya'know? Everyone once in a while, they'll start crying for you… it's weird."

"I don't think anyone ever told them- eh?" But when Ryuk looked back, Light was no longer in the doorway.

He had already taken the first of many steps back towards his perfect world.


	3. Chapter One Interlude

Lightning cracked violently across heavy, violet clouds as the turbulent downpour continued on. The wind howled feverishly through the many skyscrapers of the bustling city. Still, the city lights shown bright against the darkness of the night and the people carried on as normal through the horrific weather. The sidewalks were lined with people walking briskly, umbrellas held overhead. In the streets, cars and taxis waited for the light to blink from red to green.

A short ways from the city, just on the outskirts, several old buildings and ramshacks sat in decrepit conditions and in disrepair. Perhaps these buildings had been operational only a couple years ago, but now due to some disaster, had fallen in ruin.

It was here, in one of these great, collapsing buildings, that a brilliant light appeared, illuminating the dark, water damaged roof. No one was around to see this light or hear the beautiful hum it generated as it swayed against the wind. The light had seemingly fallen from the crackling clouds and now rested next to the elevated doorway that led into the building. From here, there was a great view of the surrounding area and it was just high enough to see the limits of the industrial part of the city.

The light lulled again as it grew greatly in size and radiance and with a great flash that most in the city mistook for lightning, a pale pair of unclad feet stepped out onto the rugged metal shingles. The light clung to the man who stepped out for a while, but soon, as he stepped away from it, began to dissipate.

"This will work..." The man muttered, raising a skinny thumb to his lips.

The light flickered briefly and the man turned back to it, with a bored expression.

"... Yes." He mumbled to the gleaming body.

"Yes, I understand..."

The light grew slightly brighter as though it were a living, breathing entity. With the man's final response, the Light dimmed and vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, leaving him there in the freezing rain; though he didn't seem to notice.

Peering out over the city, the man blinked and returned his thumb to his side. The sound the rain made against the metal on the roof was deafening, but he could still here the much-too-familiar sound of sirens and large advertisement screens.

The man took a couple steps back before turning to the rusted door behind him. The heavy padlock that held it shut fell off as the man approached it and fell noiselessly in the rain. The man sighed disdainfully before pulling open the heavy door and entered into the darkness of the building without a second glance.


End file.
